CS official: Warders are underpaid

By SALLY POKITON
UPNG journalism student
CORRECTIONAL Services (CS) officers have been underpaid since the beginning of the year, CS employees association general secretary Jeffery Borari said.
He said last year, before his appointment to the board, the Salary Condition Monitoring Committee of the Department of Personal Management approved a budget of K6.75 million for the warders’ salary increment.
Borari said the K6.75 million should see a salary increment of 7.5% across the board which to date had not been implemented, leaving warders underpaid.
He said according to the scheduled new base salary set last year, a sergeant who was paid K815 should be paid a 7.5% increase of K61.12.
He said the new base security risk allowance of K180 was had not been paid as the officers were still receiving only K90.
When contacted Commissioner Martin Balthazar said the service had more than 1,400 personnel and most likely the officers being underpaid was because of oversight or an error in the data entry process.
“It is up to the officers if they haven’t been paid accordingly to follow the right procedure by submitting the pay slips to their respective department so that so the assistant secretary commission can correct the inputs to correct their pay rise,” Balthazar said.
He said those underpaid could be on suspension or had taken long leave.
“It may not be intentional but an oversight
of the system in processing their pay,” Balthazar said.